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March 28, 2024

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College voters hurt by Obama’s presidency

The American youth vote will be the most important factor in this year’s Presidential election, much as it was in 2008, when college students turned out in historical numbers to propel then candidate Barack Obama to a historic 35 percentage point victory among voters ages 19 to 29.

Indeed, so important is the youth demographic that President Obama is counting on it to save him again; and at first glance, it would seem that the usual overwhelmingly liberal college population is ready to oblige. Yet, while history and tradition may be on his side, Obama’s failed economic policies, broken promises, overspending and disingenuous nature have left the 2012 youth population cold and indifferent towards the man they once revered so ardently.

As such, this year’s college vote looks to be that of one based off of general distaste toward the President’s failed economic policies, or lack thereof, and not one born out of traditional worshiping.

According to the Congressional Budget Office in 2008 Obama guaranteed Americans that if his stimulus package were to pass, unemployment would not rise above 8 percent. Yet, here we are in Sept. 2012 – years after Obama’s stimulus got through Congress – celebrating our 42nd consecutive month of national unemployment above 8 percent.

Many redirect their gaze to the condition in which the economy was passed down (i.e. “blame Bush”). Yet, this is faulty logic. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, at the end of President George W. Bush’s second term in 2008, the national debt was roughly $10.5 trillion, making Bush’s total debt contribution roughly $5 trillion during eight years. Sadly, at $16.2 trillion, Barack Obama has increased the U.S. national debt by more than $5 trillion, and it has only taken him three and a half years to do it.

One term and $5 trillion later, Obama has taken his ace in the hole and placed it up for grabs – they were once Obama supporters in 2008, youth voters are now showing a decrease in enthusiasm for the President.

According to the Federal Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 40 percent of this past year’s college graduates are unemployed and 25 percent of them have moved back with their parents. Furthermore, unemployment between the ages of 18 and 24 has risen from 11.1 percent when Obama took office in 2008 to a staggering 17.1 percent in 2012. Worse yet, the unemployment rate for 18 to 29 year olds is roughly 13 percent – worse than the state of Nevada, which has the worst unemployment rate in the nation.

It’s no wonder young voters are beginning to feel the cold fingers of Obama’s economic stimulus package – the same cold fingers their parents are feeling , the same ones business owners, the unemployed and underemployed are feeling.

Either way, this is not the issue – the issue is Obama’s blatant lack of regard and respect for us college students that put him in office in the first place. In failing to address the issues that are most important to us while trying to court our vote again, Obama is saying that he does not care about being upfront about his record.

Understanding his record is a simple matter of asking the right questions: Who put Barack Obama in office? We did. What do we want in return? An opportunity at the American dream. Did we get what we asked for? No. We gave him a chance to bring America out of the depths of despair, yet despair seems to be all we feel.

This is ironic, considering that Obama’s 2008 solution to America’s economic woes was “hope.” Yet, as we now see, hope is not good enough to land college graduates jobs that will help them pay off their loans. Obama’s hope is nothing more than a diversion from an economic record that is less than abysmal — a record he is trying to make most Americans forget. But as the polls are showing, college students are not fooled, because regardless of our divergent political views, we all share one unifying truth: we will all struggle to find jobs after college.

I am personally offended that Obama is knocking on my door again, peddling the same bill of ‘goods’ and false hope that he panhandled in 2008.

I’m angry. Are you?

Respond to Daniel at

[email protected]

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